Heather Gillette, 44, and her husband Christopher Carstens, 34, pictured with miniature donkeys Large Marge, left, and Penelope May 22, 2014 in front of their home in Woodside, Calif. The couple bought the land in 2006 and built the barn with horse stables with the intent of living in the upstairs space. Over the years, though, Heather took over the downstairs area. Sometimes animals from their land wander in and out of their home, including ducks, a chicken, three dogs, cats and the occasional horse.

Downstairs, the barn doors open to create an alleyway furnished with an Ikea rug and Oly chairs. The antique Charles et Fils chandelier a friend gave to Gillette and a drum chandelier from Restoration Hardware hang over a table from Harvest in Menlo Park.

Photo: Adriana Klas Photography

Downstairs, the barn doors open to create an alleyway furnished...

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Duke, one of five horses that roam the Woodside property, joins Gillette and Carstens at the table - a frequent, and welcome, occurrence.

NousDECOR founder Heather Gillette and her husband, Christopher Carstens live in a barn in Woodside. Downstairs, the barn doors open to create an alleyway, with three stalls on either side, complete with drains. The space is now used for large gatherings.

It was during construction that Gillette co-founded NousDecor after she became frustrated with the inability to search efficiently across a number of sites for furniture and fixtures. “I'm not a designer,” she explains. “I'm just a woman who was given a rustic chandelier for the horse barn and I couldn't find the right match or a way to make it work in the space.”

Photo: Adriana Klas Photography

It was during construction that Gillette co-founded NousDecor after...

It's not every day you find a couple comfortable having farm animals wander through the downstairs of their home. That's a total of 26 animals - including three dogs, five horses, chickens, ducks and three miniature donkeys - in the case of Heather Gillette, 44, and her husband, Christopher Carstens, 34. In 2006, they bought land in Woodside and built a barn to house themselves and their menagerie.

"We love animals. They are very, very special to me. I've been that way all my life. We have videos of them all wandering freely through," says Gillette, one of the original eight employees at YouTube and now founder of NousDecor ( www.nousdecor.com), a one-stop for browsing interiors, creating mood boards, and finding specific products and shopping. They are unusual in Woodside in that "the accommodations are small for humans and large for the animals," she says while patting their dogs - a St. Bernard, a Newfoundland and an elderly Great Pyrenees-Australian shepherd-poodle mix - that have a combined weight of 450 pounds.

The barn, built to look aged, sits on about 8 bucolic acres on the Skyline Ridge with panoramic views. The couple live upstairs in 540 square feet, with a mix of retro pieces such as the antique icebox used as a book shelf; lights picked up from travels in Corsica, France; Craigslist finds such as the 15-year-old washing machine and a bathroom sink made of wood and stone with fossils; and French chairs from eBay covered in sackcloth.

Open alleyway

Downstairs, which was zoned for agriculture, the barn doors open to create an alleyway, with three stalls on either side, complete with drains. The horses wintered there initially. But, "over time, it got a little too rustic, even for me," Gillette says. Three years ago, the horses were fenced off - except for Bijou, who is so old, he's lost his teeth. The animals still visit (she finds eggs in her closet), particularly the horses who escape their enclosure all the time. "The grass is literally always greener," she says.

Those downstairs rooms act as guest bedrooms and a closet/pantry, and the alleyway serves as a breezy entertaining and dining space. Last year, they hosted Thanksgiving for 14 of her relatives and everyone stayed over.

A walk around the property reveals fields, willow gates, fruit trees, a half-finished pond, a fire pit where the couple married, the wisteria and rose-covered barn, a newer horse barn, and a potting station with a raw marble sink from Emily Joubert. In another home, the sink would reside in a hushed-tones powder room. Here, it's used daily.

Gillette's willingness to take on a challenge earned her the teenage nickname Square Peg. She's single-handedly built the 100 fences on the property, fashioned in the Revolutionary War-era style without nails, and is in the process of laying the tile floor in the downstairs of the house.

She built the fireplaces downstairs from Gold Rush-era cattle feeders. She even constructed the septic system. It's clear she doesn't stop working one way or another: "If you're excited, it's not work," she says. Her husband, an inventor, says: "I'm a good rose smeller. We complement each other like that."

Gillette founded NousDecor after trying to match an antique Charles et Fils chandelier she had received as a gift and becoming frustrated with the inability to search efficiently across a number of sites.

"I'm not a designer," she explains. "I'm just a woman who was given a rustic chandelier for the horse barn, and I couldn't find the right match or a way to make it work in the space." She is also using her skills from her YouTube days to create a vibrant social community for the website.

Modern shift

But lately her tastes have shifted from classic rustic to modern. "I still need help. I'm waiting for our community to get bigger so I can plug into all that amateur talent I know is out there."

Her three shedding dogs lie in the sun, squinting into the wide bay views - a trifecta of contentment. "The house is definitely gone to the animals," Gillette says as the crows fly in to gather dog hair for their nests.

"But they are good boys." The elderly Fini motions that he might want to go somewhere, but can't get up. Gillette walks over and hauls him to his feet. A labor of love.

One-stop website NousDecor

NousDecor is the latest decor website to launch in the Bay Area, following Decorist, Design Mine and Furnish. No wonder: In 2012, the United States and Canada spent $107.6 billion on home decor and furniture according to market research firm Mintel, which predicts that in three years, 10 percent of those sales will be online.

NousDecor ( www.nousdecor.com) aims to be a one-stop for browsing interiors, creating mood boards, and finding specific products and shopping. One of the advantages is that visitors can search by dimension and color, rather than just style or category. The most popular feature so far is Same Look, Different Price, offering a range of price points for similar-looking pieces.

The site also aims to be a social community for decor enthusiasts and professionals to collaborate and seek help - sales of goods via social networks are predicted to reach $14 billion within the next year, according to consulting firm Booz & Co. (now Strategy&.)

Heather Gillette's friend and colleague from YouTube, Dorothee Fisher, is co-founder of the site and chief designer is Mark Cutler of HGTV, whose clients include Jennifer Lopez and Steve Carell. At this stage you might even get Cutler's input on your design questions. He also holds a weekly Master Class detailing insider tips and techniques and will be doing video tours and tutorials.